Page 2517 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 31 July 2019
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ACT’s waste management strategy presents a holistic waste management system approach from the initial generation of waste through to its ultimate disposal with opportunities to reduce waste at each step of the hierarchy”.
As Ms Cheyne’s motion outlines, the strategy has set a target to divert 90 per cent of waste from landfill by 2025. It is an ambitious target, but worth while. But much more work will need to be done and more alternatives to sending waste to landfill will need to be adopted if we are to reach that target in six years time. We know that Canberra’s growing population is putting increased pressure on the Mugga Lane tip. As unpalatable as some alternatives might seem to some, there needs to be a serious discussion about what other options are possible for the ACT, and we need agreement on a way forward.
I was pleased to hear Ms Cheyne talk about choice, that people can make a choice as to which approach they might like to adopt. Her motion goes specifically to the numerous disposable products that are now common, both feminine hygiene products and nappies for babies. Unlike with plastic bags, there are fewer options to move entirely away from sanitary and nappy products, disposable, reusable or otherwise. It will take time to overcome some emotional barriers that people might have towards this change.
We have to acknowledge and accept that these sanitary products and nappy products have an enormous impact on society. A staggering 3.75 million disposable nappies are used each day in Australia and New Zealand. It takes about one cup of crude oil to make each nappy. This is a lot of landfill with conventional disposable nappies, which are estimated to take up to 150 years to break down. Whether you choose disposable or cloth nappies, in the first few years of a child’s life there are likely to be around 6,000 nappy changes. I am sure that parents everywhere are thrilled to hear that number quantified.
Both disposable and cloth nappies have an impact on the environment. Millions of disposable nappies end up in landfill every day. Their manufacture uses finite resources and contributes to global warming. When disposable nappies were first introduced, they were viewed as a timesaving and, in some cases, lifesaving gift for busy mothers and fathers. I remember them becoming really popular when I had my children quite a long time ago. I remember often going out to the supermarket or other places with a couple of nappy pins still attached to my shirt from a nappy change. If you did not have a screaming baby with you, people knew that you were definitely a mother.
Disposable nappies have been around since the 1950s. They were invented by the US-based company Procter & Gamble. Disposable menstrual pads grew from a Benjamin Franklin invention created to help stop wounded soldiers bleeding, but they appear to have been first commercially available from around 1888. Given the length of time of production of both these products, it is perhaps surprising, if not disappointing, that more has not been done to make these types of products more environmentally sympathetic.
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